By: Sara Murray | WSJ Like nearly every other governor, Maine's new Republican leader is trying to tame the cost of Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health insurance to the poor. He just doesn't know if Washington will let him—even though Maine has among the most generous programs in the country. Medicaid was created in 1965 to provide health coverage for the poorest Americans, particularly those with children. States pay, on average, 43% of the tab for … [Read more...]
Florida Senators May Cut Optional Medicaid Services
February 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
MIAMI (AP) — Florida Senate leaders may propose cutting dentistry, optometry and mental health services for Medicaid patients as they try to curb the program's budget, which is expected to top $21 billion next year. The emerging Senate bill calls for making cuts in so-called optional services as well as increasing reimbursement rates and limiting legal liabilities for primary care doctors. Although the increased reimbursement rates would cost more, senators want to encourage primary … [Read more...]
Double-digit Medicaid growth pile-drives Texas budget
January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
By Caralyn Davis Not only is Texas facing a shortfall of $11 billion to $15 billion when the next state budget is due in 2011, but unanticipated healthcare costs have already driven the state's current two-year budget, just six months after passage, into the red as well, reports the Dallas Morning News. Medicaid is the primary culprit, accounting for $1.3 billion of the deficit. Other offenders include health coverage for state employees ($142 million); correctional managed healthcare … [Read more...]
Healthcare reform waivers are unfair
January 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
With states and small businesses struggling to define the financial path to implementation of the provisions of healthcare reform, we believe it is unfair to single out states and big businesses by allowing them "waivers." These waivers have long been political carrots for public assistance programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps. States - with hat in hand - head to DC to beg the bureaucrats to allow them to build programs and solutions that will work in their states. More often than not, … [Read more...]
Texas budget deficit impact on Medicaid provider rates
January 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Gregg Phillips Today is D-Day - or maybe B-Day - in Texas as the high level budget is laid out by House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts. The budget recommendations will require devastating cuts to Medicaid provider rates possibly in excess of 12 percent! In addition, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will see significant cuts in its record employment of 57,000 state employees. Governor Perry will be forced to use all of his skills as the leader of the State to force a … [Read more...]
Christie May Cut Medicaid as $10.5 Billion New Jersey Budget Deficit Looms
January 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Terrance Dopp New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gives his first State of the State speech tomorrow after saying he may cut Medicaid and employee benefits to eliminate a $10.5 billion budget deficit in the second-wealthiest U.S. state. Christie, who took office a year ago, said he’ll tell lawmakers in his address that New Jersey remains in a financial crisis and they need to maintain fiscal controls as employment and revenue recover slowly from the longest recession since the 1930s. The … [Read more...]
GOP Governors Seek Leeway to Cut Medicaid Rolls
January 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
By Janet Adamy Republican governors are pressing the Obama administration to make it easier for states to cut Medicaid enrollment, setting up a fight over one of states' costliest programs. On Friday, 33 Republican governors and governors-elect plan to send a letter to the White House and congressional leaders asking them to remove a part of the health-care overhaul law. Under the rule, states that drop enrollees from the program would lose the federal money that … [Read more...]
GAO takes a walk on bogus U.S. books
December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The GAO has given up on attempting to make accurate financial projections on the books of the United States of America. This unfortunate fact is thanks in large part to actuarial estimates showing Medicare's projected deficit more than $10 trillion higher than CMS and the Medicare board has previously projected. The Obama administration used the Medicare projection of massive savings from a 30 percent reduction in provider rates. These rate reductions were called "implausible" by CMS"s … [Read more...]
Medicaid Pushes U.S. States Off ‘Cliff’ as Governors Seek Cuts
December 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Christopher Palmeri and Pat Wechsler | Bloomberg Businessweek Washington State may not pay for glasses anymore. Massachusetts already chopped dentures. As of Oct. 1, North Carolina no longer covers surgery for the clinically obese. Governors nationwide are taking a scalpel to Medicaid, the jointly run state and federal health-care program for 48 million poor Americans, half of whom are children. The single biggest expense for states, Medicaid consumes about 22 percent of their … [Read more...]
WANTED: BACKBONES FOR BUREAUCRATS
December 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Gregg Phillips Very soon, career bureaucrats will finally have an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of their collective backbones. Decades of hiding behind regulations, rules and fat budgets are crashing down. A half century of expanding social programs - Medicaid, food stamps, social security and more - have finally pushed states to their absolute limits. We employ unprecedented numbers of employees in the public sector. It’s as if government has become a giant jobs … [Read more...]
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